What gave 60's Greyhounds their distinctive smell

[MossRoad]

When I was a kid, our neighbor worked for Uniroyal. He developed some process for printing dyes on naugahyde. It seemed every house in the neighborhood had Nauga Monsters like these.



That neighbor made a kite out of wood and naugahyde. It was well over 8' tall. One really windy day he took it out in a local park and up it went! Amazing. Then down it came. It was so heavy that when it crashed it blew to pieces.

 

[MossRoad]

I had heard that the smell in VWs was because of the coconut fibre used in the seat padding. Some people said it was horse hair, but everything I find says coconut.

My parents had 4-5 VW vans, a beetle and a Karmann Ghia. I don't recall any odd smells. But I do recall the chirp of the beetle exhaust.

 

[stuckmotor]

I love the reply about and corins. and extinct naugies.

 

[C Angell]

In my younger days Greyhound bus exhaust didn't smell like the exhaust from any other diesel I knew of. What caused it?

Sulphur content, well maintained Detroit Diesel & Maxidyne engines in the 80s made that wonderful aroma...
Also had that 'trademark' restroom deodorant...
Worked on an asphalt highway crew, & even without seeing or hearing the GREYHOUND, those 2 smells lingered.

 

[stuckmotor]

Sulphur content, well maintained Detroit Diesel & Maxidyne engines in the 80s made that wonderful aroma...
Also had that 'trademark' restroom deodorant...
Worked on an asphalt highway crew, & even without seeing or hearing the GREYHOUND, those 2 smells lingered.

Thank you. I believe you've cracked the mystery.

 

[JasperFrank]

I think you can take just about anyone of a certain age, blindfold them and somehow lift them in to an original VW Beetle, with out touching anything, and they would instantly recognize it just by the scent. Like Winterdeer said. It might be cause of how they were heated off the exhaust or the materials used. My uncle had a beetle, and I had an early type III fastback for a while. "Old socks and a hint of unburned gas?" It wasn't unpleasant, but it was distinctive.

 

[sd455dan]

I actually thought it was that, as well. But at least the few sites I found before posting about the wax all refuted that idea.

The use of Naugahyde caused the total extinction of the Naugie, a cute six legged rat.
this caused Chrysler to go to Corinthian leather in many of their vehicles. I am still looking for a Corin. So many names for the same cheaap vinyl.

There must have been several qualities of it.

GM's version " MORROKIDE"
was Tough stuff, every early GTO that had it never really seemed to wear.
Compared with the really cheap cloth GM put in the 1980's cars it was much better wearing.

 

[JasperFrank]

Anyone else notice when being passed by an army convoy of trucks, the distinctive smell. Its not diesel. It smells sort of like cosmoline. Or something the army uses to protect the canvas.

 

[Oaktree]

I think you can take just about anyone of a certain age, blindfold them and somehow lift them in to an original VW Beetle, with out touching anything, and they would instantly recognize it just by the scent.

I don't offhand recall any specific odor from old VWs, but Japanese vehicles from the 70s had a very distinctive, and not very pleasant smell to them. I presume if was from the plastic they used, that's what it kind of smelled like.

 

[orezok]

Anyone else notice when being passed by an army convoy of trucks, the distinctive smell. Its not diesel. It smells sort of like cosmoline. Or something the army uses to protect the canvas.

Many times military trucks are fueled with JP-8 (aviation fuel). Different from diesel